Greetings, Stalkers

Greetings Stalkers! Very happy to find another forum for our beloved StalkerSoup. Thank you, Aleks for all that you do for our favorite game.

I'm one of the "old breed/old guys", 72 this year. I haven't taken on any big projects like TB, Aleks, sword, and Steve, but I help out where I can. I did create an alternate weapons pack, the Blackbyte WP in 2012, assisted sahafiec with his Collector, GB, ZEP videos. Am currently doing the same with Plesskyn's walkthroughs.

Being retired, I play Stalkersoup a lot, and have finished 7 times at last count. Know the game well, and happy to assist other players with gameplay questions. So, get out there and start STALKING!

Oh wow, I thought I was getting on a bit at 64, but you're a veritable Jedi master...

It's wonderful to have you here!

LOL I wondered if I would be a lonely old-timer at 63 but apparently not. Hiya, fellow Boomers!

And here I am at 50 and thought myself one of the oldest gamers. Glad to see I have peers.

wow! I'm surprised you are all twice the age I thought you were!
I honestly thought everyone was in their 20-30s..

I'm interested in your abilties, kd6dm, would you be interested in working on a custom weapon?

Hi everyone 71 and still in the zone. No other game has the intense immersive atmosphere. Now that were getting a tad older remembering where we are in the game is challenging.Thanks to all the modders and TB.

Ramjet146 wrote:

Hi everyone 71 and still in the zone. No other game has the intense immersive atmosphere. Now that were getting a tad older remembering where we are in the game is challenging.Thanks to all the modders and TB.

Amen, brother. It's why I don't mind starting new games..they're like a first time play through every time! LOL.

Hi my new name is TrueB for this great Forum. Ironically, on the now defunct Steam forum, I had just achieved 5 stars with over 2,500 comments, any helpful info provided to me and possibly from me, to quote "Bladerunner" are lost like tears in rain.
With this new Forum with different topical headings and the general 100* Rads Bar area, it will be easier to search for subjects.
I have been a digital gamer since buying a Sinclair Spectrum and before that using the magazine 'Strategy and Tactics' etc. After buying the 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and moving on to complete mod games, I found Soup back in 109932 and gradually after sending comments and reporting CTDs to TB, became a tester for TB in 109940 and up to December 2016. Since then, TB asked me to move on to provide suggestions and comments, which I now do.
I believe Soup will continue to evolve for some years, for afaik we are up to the 4th level - level 3. TB announced 10 levels including online play, so the evolution has some way to go. And then there are planned enhancements such as the BlackMarket, so improving content goes on, and the vast enhancement of the English language version.
My thanks to all contributors especially TB, Aleks, Grimwald, Kd6dm, Plesskyn, Sahafiec, Steve, Sword and all those whose mods are embedded in Soup, including the original team in N/S.

Another 'oldie' at 65. I've lost count of my successive end-to-end playthroughs (currently starting ZEP yet again), but the very size of the game and all the love that has gone into making it means that it never gets boring. (And it is a bonus when I occasionally remember where some of those cunningly hidden stashes are!) My thanks to TB and to all the other hard-working contributors for producing such an enjoyable game. Looking forward to the continuation of the story...

Hi to everyone, i'm stryker4lm4l0v3 from the dead forum of Stalkersoup in Steam.

Cheers to everyone!

Hi everyone. Here's Florin, Romanian,50 y.o. I'm glad to see there's a new home for this great game.

Not an introduction, but maybe a re-introduction? Monday Oct 9th at 2:00 AM my wife and I were evacuated due to the fires in Northern California, specifically the Redwood Valley Potter Valley Complex, later renamed the Mendocino Lake Complex. Luckily, my home survived, and we were allowed back on Oct 16th. Devastating tragedy, over 350 homes and 8 lives lost in Redwood Valley alone.

Good to be back to near "normal", if there is such a thing. Played StalkerSoup a couple hours today, great therapy. Good to be back.

kd6dm wrote:

Not an introduction, but maybe a re-introduction? Monday Oct 9th at 2:00 AM my wife and I were evacuated due to the fires in Northern California, specifically the Redwood Valley Potter Valley Complex, later renamed the Mendocino Lake Complex. Luckily, my home survived, and we were allowed back on Oct 16th. Devastating tragedy, over 350 homes and 8 lives lost in Redwood Valley alone.

Good to be back to near "normal", if there is such a thing. Played StalkerSoup a couple hours today, great therapy. Good to be back.

Welcome back kd6dm, good to hear that you are okay. We were watching the fires on the news. It is always a tragedy when people lose their lives in these "natural" events.

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

Previous post

Welcome back to the game, TrueB!

You'll find a lot has changed while you've been away, and many of the old videos may no longer be accurate. Even Plesskyn's Walkthroughs are quickly becoming obsolete as more bugs get fixed in the game, better ideas are implemented, and the entire behemoth prepares for a 64-bit incarnation

And once that happens it should experience near-exponential growth  

There's a new installation guide here, for those wanting to get the most out of the game
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I really hope you enjoy the differences you're sure to find!

Hi TrueB, welcome back. Good to see you back in the Soup again!

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

Thanks, Sword and Pchester, it is good to be back. Hopefully I can return to writing under TrueB and not my Shakespearean adlib. Regards, TrueB.

Have you tried the "I forgot my password" link under the login box?

Edit by Aleks1970;

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

Greetings Stalkers,
Having found this Forum, and tried to register, I realised that my old StalkerSoup name was with a different ISP. I have corresponded with TB and hope to be able to regain it as it is written on the boards in the game. That is: TrueB, though my username with Steam was truebritt. I thought it a good idea to mention this, in view of the Username I have made 3 posts in. At present, I am enjoying watching Grimwald's complete playthrough again.
It is wonderful to see so many names again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

TrueB wrote:

Hi my new name is TrueB for this great Forum. Ironically, on the now defunct Steam forum, I had just achieved 5 stars with over 2,500 comments, any helpful info provided to me and possibly from me, to quote "Bladerunner" are lost like tears in rain.
With this new Forum with different topical headings and the general 100* Rads Bar area, it will be easier to search for subjects.
I have been a digital gamer since buying a Sinclair Spectrum and before that using the magazine 'Strategy and Tactics' etc. After buying the 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and moving on to complete mod games, I found Soup back in 109932 and gradually after sending comments and reporting CTDs to TB, became a tester for TB in 109940 and up to December 2016. Since then, TB asked me to move on to provide suggestions and comments, which I now do.
I believe Soup will continue to evolve for some years, for afaik we are up to the 4th level - level 3. TB announced 10 levels including online play, so the evolution has some way to go. And then there are planned enhancements such as the BlackMarket, so improving content goes on, and the vast enhancement of the English language version.
My thanks to all contributors especially TB, Aleks, Grimwald, Kd6dm, Plesskyn, Sahafiec, Steve, Sword and all those whose mods are embedded in Soup, including the original team in N/S.

Here is a slight problem because, I had forgotten in a 70 yr old senior moment that I had already registered here, so I finding TrueB taken,made an interim login in the name of TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB! .

As I do just want TrueB and have written to TB, I hope all will be well.
Regards, TrueB.

.................................................................................................................

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

Thanks, Sword and Pchester, it is good to be back. Hopefully I can return to writing under TrueB and not my Shakespearean adlib. Regards, TrueB.

*********************************************************

Hi pchester,
Aleks has kindly helped me revert from TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB to TrueB, which is good given arthritic fingers

pchester wrote:

Hi TrueB, welcome back. Good to see you back in the Soup again!

Thanks pchester, glad to be back and to find you here.

Sword2012 wrote:

TrueB-Or-Not-TrueB wrote:

Previous post

Welcome back to the game, TrueB!

You'll find a lot has changed while you've been away, and many of the old videos may no longer be accurate. Even Plesskyn's Walkthroughs are quickly becoming obsolete as more bugs get fixed in the game, better ideas are implemented, and the entire behemoth prepares for a 64-bit incarnation

And once that happens it should experience near-exponential growth  

There's a new installation guide here, for those wanting to get the most out of the game
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I really hope you enjoy the differences you're sure to find!

Hi Sword, re changes, please advise what the new areas are?
I was also surprised of a mission from Sid for army uniforms as I did not know he asks for same

TrueB wrote:

I was also surprised of a mission from Sid for army uniforms as I did not know he asks for same

This is an expansion of his original second 'Special Mission', to

Spoiler:

It makes the mission more interesting, and now you get a very useful item as a reward.

pchester wrote:

TrueB wrote:

I was also surprised of a mission from Sid for army uniforms as I did not know he asks for same

This is an expansion of his original second 'Special Mission', to

Spoiler:

It makes the mission more interesting, and now you get a very useful item as a reward.

Many thanks pchester for this information, it has certainly added  a good incentive to play and find out

TrueB wrote:

Hi Sword, re changes, please advise what the new areas are?

I'm afraid I really couldn't tell you. The Zone is mutable. It's different things to different people, and any definition of what's changed would simply be a fleeting, ephemeral snapshot

Which is why every guide and walkthrough to StalkerSoup becomes as quickly out of date as the military's 'anomaly maps' in CoP    

TB and Aleks do a great job, with each new patch, in letting Stalkers find out for themselves what's altered as they go out each day. This is a realistic dynamic I love about the Zone and the game, and why some veteran Stalkers, on completing it, start afresh immediately, to see what each new day brings...

Apart from the mission changes, I know that Aleks is constantly importing new weapons into the Zone. There are new mutants, including the giant spider I've always wanted to see   . There's also a new team working on objects that you'll see scattered around the Zone, but all this is just general info I've discovered as I continue my own playthrough

One thing I can say for certain is that the game is becoming more dialogue-driven, and it'll be more important than ever to read and take in what other Stalkers are saying in the game

Fortunately these dialogues are becoming easier to read, and most of the original Russian terms have been replaced. But there are still huge tracts of text that still need reworking, especially nearer the end of the game, because we simply haven't got there yet...

But one nugget I hope you'll like is the reworking of the 33 diaries that are found on dead Controllers. This has never been achieved before in the original NS game nor in StalkerSoup, and there remain just two unfinished. We're aiming to get them into the next patch on time, and this single job will have taken three months to decipher and rewrite...  

Sword2012 wrote:

Above post

Hi Sword,
Newness and evolving describe Soup exactly. I think this will continue for several years because filling and storylining some areas, such as Black Market, and these new 3 areas with dialogues and items, takes time and testing. When I last tested, the Firing Range, was very bare, and could be real fun especially with targets. It would also show the capabilities and accuracy of various firearms.
Watching Grimwald in Recon, there was a piece of card with Russian on it. This sort of card, to put in slot one but in Russian, would be so much more interesting if in the various translations of Soup dialogue inc English, the meaning was given. I as surely all subscribers applaud and thank you, Aleks, Steve and others involved in the dialogue group. Regards, TrueB.

TrueB wrote:

Above post

With the game being 32 bit, everything in it currently has to fit within 4Gb of RAM - the absolute limit of any 32 bit application

Although the installed game can take up over 20Gb of hard drive space, if it tries to use any more than 4Gb of it at any one time, the game will crash

This has been TB's job throughout the development of the game (in addition to that of every other STALKER modder in history) - managing the memory allocation processes

It's one reason STALKER games had a reputation for crashing a lot, because everyone wanted to put so much more in...

But this is a skill beyond the abilities of most people, even experienced modders, and it's to TB's credit that the game is now so stable

But once the game goes 64 bit (see above paragraph) this memory limitation will practically disappear, and will open up the game to a previously unheard of level of expansion, including all the ideas that you and many others have suggested  

Sword2012 wrote:

Above post

Thanks for letting me know the situation, Sword. I had forgotten about this limit and afaiaa, SGM 2.2 complete game mod using Stalker Call of Pripyat engine, got round the limit, thus allowing more RAM, but TB uses the older engine and is still as you say, managing the resources. Hopefully a solution will soon present itself. Until then, I will wait for the next upgrade before returning to the zone.